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Dark Fall
Dark Fall is an Honoverse novella explaining the origins of the secretive Bolthole research and development complex. It was included in the fourteenth main series novel, Uncompromising Honor, and is also available online through Baen Books' website. Timeframe: 552 PD / 1882 PD / 1916 PD Plot In 552 PD, the crew of the Calvin's Hope see their worst fears confirmed when they arrive in orbit of Calvin III, the planet they planned to settle down on. Ten years earlier, two asteroids had hit the surface, and the planet, formerly an Earth-like paradise, is now unsuitable for human colonization. Captain Vincent Anderson, eighth commanding officer of the sub-light generation ship, must face the reality that they do not have the resources to turn back and reach Earth's outlying colonies; the only choice is to find another habitable world in relative close proximity, or the dream of their ancestors to build a new home out of reach of the Earth Union will die with them. Over thirteen hundred years later, in 1882 PD, the Havenite light cruiser [[PNS Pilgrim|PNS Pilgrim]] is in the process of mapping a newly discovered wormhole near J-156-18(L). Captain Bradley Thoreau oversees his crew as they make the first transit through the anomaly, arriving in the Calvin System, which is only remembered for the tragic loss of Calvin III and the disappearance of the colonial expedition. As the news reaches Haven, Vice Admiral Amos Parnell is frustrated that it appears of little actual value to the People's Republic: both termini are located in desolate systems with few neighbors, and the Manticore Wormhole Junction still offers a shorter route between the Haven Sector and the core worlds of the Solarian League. However, Ingeborg Rousseau, a senior advisor to Hereditary President Harris, believes that Calvin can serve as a staging ground for a future attack on the Star Kingdom of Manticore. The Navy doubts the validity of these plans, but has no choice but to explore them. Another thirty-four years later, in 1916 PD, acting President Eloise Pritchart visits the Refuge System and the planet Sanctuary. Having overthrown the Committee of Public Safety and still fighting a brutal civil war within her own nation's borders, she now reminisces on how Haven's survey of Calvin's surroundings had discovered the wreck of the Calvin's Hope in orbit of Sanctuary. The descendants of the Calvin expedition had built a new home there , suffered terrible catastrophes that sent their society into a new dark age, and eventually reemerged, building a global population of over two billion. The Legislaturalists had used the "primitive" local population to exploit the system's rich resources and built a vast research and development base known as Bolthole. Pritchart meets with Shirkahna Ambart VIII, the de facto political leader of the Sanctuarians. She explains to him that she feels morally compelled to recognize the sovereignty and independence of the Refuge System, as well as their ownership of the Bolthole complex and the rest of the local orbital industry. However, the ongoing Civil War and the continuing tensions with the Star Kingdom of Manticore leaves her in desperate need for Bolthole's shipbuilding capabilities. Ambart VIII assures her that the Sanctuarians are quite thankful for the overall improvement of their standard of living that the Havenites have brought. With her promises of better treatment in the future, they will reach a deal to keep Sanctuary hidden and provide its services to the Republic, helping to restore it to the ideal Michèle Péricard had intended. References Characters Maryellen Abramatsovna | Ambart Ambartson-Melynyson | Patricia Anderson | Vincent Anderson | Baranav | Ronald Bergren | Braun | Angelique Calvin | Angus Calvin | Clouseau | Elaine Descroix | Sarah Glaston | Javier Giscard | Jacqueline Hammond | Sidney Harris | Michael Janvier, Baron High Ridge | Leonidas Konstantopoulos | Adelaide Laforge | Denis LePic | Seong Cho Mee | Shirley McKellen | Amos Parnell | Michèle Péricard | Robert Pierre | Eloise Pritchart | Danielle Rendova | Ingeborg Rousseau | Oscar Saint-Just | Thomas Theisman | Sheila Thiessen | Bradley Thoreau | Lester Tourville | Wilhelm Trajan | Kevin Usher | Joe Vogel | Roger III Winton | Zagorski Starships * Calvin's Hope * [[RHNS Péricard|RHNS Péricard]] (a.k.a. [[RHNS Péricard|PNS Cordelia Ransom]]) * [[PNS Pilgrim|PNS Pilgrim]] * [[RHNS Tourbillon|RHNS Tourbillon]] Nations * Ankhassar * Earth Union * People's Republic of Haven * Star Kingdom of Manticore * Solarian League Planets * Beowulf * Calvin III * Grayson * Haven * Sanctuary Other Angelique Ocean | Beowulf Expedition | Bolthole | Bryant System | Calvin System | Chief of Naval Operations (Haven) | Committee of Public Safety | Conestoga System | ''Dark Fall'' | Haven System | Havenite Civil War | Hereditary President of the People's Republic of Haven | High Ridge government | Home | J-156-18(L)-KCR-126-06 warp bridge | J-156-18(L) | J-193-18(L) | KCR-126-04 | Landing Valley | Legislaturalists | Manticore System | Manticore Wormhole Junction | Mountain Fort | Nouveau Paris | Octagon | Office of Frontier Security | ''Pathfinder'' class | Prolong | Republic of Haven Marine Corps | (People's) Republic of Haven Navy | Refuge System | Royal Manticoran Navy | shirkahna | Secretary of War | Sol System | Trevor's Star System | Vesuvius | Yasotaro System External links * [https://www.baen.com/darkfall Dark Fall] on baen.com Category:Real World Articles Category:Honorverse material Category:Short Stories